CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, September 22, 2014

by William Hamilton, Ph.D.

President Obama: Just wild about Harry

President Obama wont be on the ballot this coming November, but observers can tell by his actions and even in his inactions that he is desperate to keep Senator Harry Reid in control of the U.S. Senate. Majority Leader Reid wont allow Republican-sponsored bills to even be debated in the Senate. Then, turning the facts on their head, Senator Reid charges the Republicans in Congress with "doing nothing." Consequently, the President is just wild about Harry.

In the early years of the Obama Administration, Democrat candidates and members of Congress mentioned President Obama at every opportunity. Now, in 2014, the same Democrats wont speak his name. Nevertheless, President Obama is still effective at million-dollar fund-raisers where Hollywood gathers in thanks for his social policies and Wall Street offers thanks for monetary policies that are keeping high-dollar investors inside the elite "one-percent."

Still, given all the scandals and failures which have beset the Obama Administration and the economic policies that are shrinking the Middle Class, one would think that the voters will turn out in November and put the Republicans in control of the Senate and increase the number of Republicans in the House. But wait. The Democrats operate a very strong "ground game," and their big donors have raised more money in this election cycle than have the Republicans.

While Republicans may eventually decide to contribute more money, beating the Democrats at their "ground game" may be another matter. So, what is this vaunted Democrat "ground game," anyway?

The Democrats Left-based ground game is composed of people who are so passionate about income redistribution, gun control, abortion, gay rights, open borders, global warming, isolationism, and getting more free "stuff," that they will walk door-to-door in their precincts again and again, getting face-to-face with prospective voters, providing them with campaign literature, yard signs, bumper stickers, rides to polls, baby-sitting and even doing their household chores. They volunteer to staff phone banks, write letters-to-the editor and, where voter ID is lax, even get the dead to vote.

Those kinds of close interactions with prospective voters and the drive to win-at-all-cost do not come naturally to many Republicans who think the logic of their arguments for: lower taxes, work-fare rather than welfare, more personal freedom, fewer government regulations, a free-market economic tide to lift all Americans, and a strong national defense ought to be motivation enough to get voters to their local polling places. Wrong. That kind of complacency got Candidate Obama elected -- twice.

Notice how the well-funded Democrat campaign advertisements are almost all negative in tone. If you cannot point with pride, that is what you must do. Although many people complain about them, the negative advertisements seem to stick in the minds of voters.

A sitting President can engineer some kind of "October Surprise," designed to throw the other side off stride. Republicans should brace themselves for that. So, despite, all the polling data indicating voters are sick of the gridlock in Washington and no longer trust President Obama, the November election could go either way. Conceivably, Harry Reid might get to spend two more years preventing GOP-proposed legislation from reaching President Obamas desk and confirming one, possibly two, U.S. Supreme Court appointments.

Nationally syndicated columnist, William Hamilton, is a laureate of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma University Army ROTC Wall of Fame. He was educated at the University of Oklahoma, the George Washington University, the U.S Naval War College, the University of Nebraska, and Harvard University.

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